


Sea of Change

by R_S



Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst, Awkward First Times, Descriptions of blood/injury, F/F, Innocent Luffy, M/M, Mild Language, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-15
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 08:08:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2143413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_S/pseuds/R_S
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The crew has just gained a new member, their new doctor, Chopper. En rout to Alabasta this story begins. Luffy has always worried about Zoro, because his green haired swordsman doesn't seem to ever worry about himself. That 'worry' however, might be something more, if the naive Strawhat Captain had any inclination of what 'more' was. Nami looks after Vivi quietly, and secrets don't exist between crew members.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Injured

**Author's Note:**

> ***I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great mind of Eiichiro Oda***

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chopper has been on the ship for maybe an hour when he finds himself having to use his skills as new Ship's Doctor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great mind of Eiichiro Oda***

“Leave it!” 

“Zoro –!”

“I said leave it! Get your goddamn hands off me!” 

“Usopp, hand me that… Quit squirming around, Marimo!” 

“Oi—o—oi!!!” 

The captain of the Strawhat Pirates, Monkey D Luffy, is leaning against the doorframe of Merry’s upper cabin, the kitchenette to his left. He’s still wearing his crewmate’s ripped up yellow tartan coat with one sleeve torn off. His navigator – Nami, and cook – Sanji, have pulled one of the long bench seats out from the table and, along with their sniper – Usopp, and new Ship’s Doctor – Tony Tony Chopper, are holding down an aggravated Zoro, Swordsman of the Strawhat crew. Holding him down, but not very successfully. 

Drum Island was not even out of sight yet, white snow glittering behind on column-shaped peaks 5000 meters over sea level. It was dark out, but the moon was full and bright, and the sea shimmered with deep frozen blue with silver edged swells. Time spent on the winter island had been the coldest Luffy had ever experienced, but he found he loved the snow – plus they had managed to save Nami, and found a new Nakama, so all in all, he was pretty pleased. Pleased, but also slightly angry. Zoro had let his wounds get worse… he just wouldn’t stop pushing himself. 

“I brought towels, Luffy-san.” Vivi says, coming up behind the quiet captain. 

Luffy nods, and the blue haired princess passes him, depositing her catch of cloth on the table while trying to avoid getting kicked by the struggling swordsman. 

“Oi! just get the hell off –! Baauff!” 

Sanji put a knee in his gut, and Luffy flinched, because the action tore at the long, diagonal still-healing-wound on Zoro’s chest. Dark blood started to seep out from between red swollen skin. Zoro, meanwhile, teeth barred and breathing through his nose sharp and heavy, put his head back on the bench and didn’t put up any more resistance. 

Nami dabbed the swordsman’s face with a moist cloth, frowning. “Dammit Zoro, we’re trying to help you.” She mutters as the ship’s cook takes off the man’s boots and peels back his socks. There’s blood on them, and puss, and it smells like rotting cabbage when he rolls up Zoro’s pant-legs.

The reindeer grimaces at the smell and the look of Zoro’s infected ankles. “How did…?” the Zoan inspected the angle of both cuts, transforming himself into Heavy Point to provide himself with human hands to more efficiently examine his patient. “He did this himself?” he breathed, glancing fearfully up at Usopp. 

“Yeah.” The sniper told Chopper. “On the island before yours there was this Wax Man, and he… Zoro got caught… thought if he cut off his feet to get free that he’d be able to keep fighting…” 

Nami bit down on her lip. She had been standing right beside the swordsman when he had attempted to sever his own ankles. Remembered how he had botched it, which was good – because he still had his feet – but he had still managed to cut through to bone. He hadn’t let anyone help him clean the cuts before they left Little Garden, or even see them. A couple days later and he’s swimming around in a frozen river with who-knows-what floating around in it… 

“I’m fine.” Zoro growled, and he wriggled again, trying to push himself up. 

Sanji, who had been standing with his arms crossed with a truly sour look on his face, bore down on his green haired nakama. Both hands on his shoulders he pushed him back against the bench so forcefully that they heard the deck creaking underneath. “Don’t fucking move, you shitty bastard!” he warned, inches from Zoro’s face. 

“Love-Cook…!” Zoro growled. 

“The infection is pretty bad.” Chopper was muttering to Usopp. “I need to cut away the flesh that’s gone gangrenous – or it’ll keep spreading.” The sniper nodded, helping the doctor arrange his instruments on the table. “And we’ll need some kind of antiseptic – clear alcohol, I don’t have any –” 

“We do.” Sanji said, still nose to nose with his angrily snarling crewmate. “Second to the left, next to the vinegar.” He said. Usopp got up to get the bottle. “Don’t mix them up.” 

Luffy could smell the rot, and he shivered because it was familiar to him. “Does Chopper need anything else?” he asks, still leaning against the doorframe. Nami doesn’t like the way his voice is trembling. 

The Zoan looks at the bottle Usopp has just handed him, and he takes tally. Clean towels, scalpels, scissors, alcohol, silk, needle… “I think I have everything I need.” He tells his captain. 

Luffy nods. 

“Do we have to tie you down?” Sanji hisses at the swordsman, clamping his fingers viciously into his dense deltoids because he’s started to wriggle again. 

The raven haired captain abandons his place at the door, slipping the torn jacket from his shoulders as he approaches his crew hovering over their injured swordsman. Vivi has both hands over her mouth, tears in her eyes as she looks on. Luffy’s hand comes down on Sanji’s shoulder, and the cook begrudgingly releases his grasp on Zoro’s shoulders. 

“Zoro’s an idiot.” Luffy says, kneeling down and crossing his sandaled feet. His straw hat tipping down over most of his face as he rocks back to sit on his heels. He stares at the enormous chest scar, trying to ignore the smell emanating from his swordsman’s infected ankles and the wild horrible memories that flash across his mind. 

“…just a couple of scratches–” Zoro says again, maybe the thousandth time he’s said it in the last hour that they’ve been back at sea. 

“Shut up.” Luffy’s hand closes around Zoro’s lips, his fingers stretching like thin ropes to grip the back of the bench so that the older pirate cannot even turn his face. His eyes narrow and he tries to struggle. Luffy makes a strange combination of movements in his back and shoulder, and his other arm stretches around and around the injured man, pinning him from hips to knees, securely tethering him to the bench he’s lying on. Usopp clamps his eyes shut, and when he opens them again they are hard and focused, and he seems unaware that he’s got tears dripping silently down his long tanned nose. 

“…should have anesthesia for this…” Chopper is muttering, methodically setting up neat rows of gauze and checking the silk. He pulls a small metal dish towards him, and takes up his scalpel. Vivi gives a small sob and a squeak behind Luffy, and the captain lowers his face another degree. 

“Anybody who doesn’t need to be here…” the young captain says. “Get out.”

Sanji kneels down and unties the bandana from Zoro’s shoulder, wadding it up as Luffy removes his hand from the man’s mouth. Their Swordsman’s lips part to start shouting, but the blond cook shoves the fabric between his teeth and Luffy’s hand returns before he can get out one word. After that the cook turns to Vivi, arm over her shoulders, and they leave. Usopp and Chopper wait patiently for Nami to slowly fold and lay the damp towel over Zoro’s eyes. She then gets up, pulling the door closed behind her as she retreats to the deck. Luffy shares a dark look with Chopper and his sniper before the Zoan’s steady hands start cutting. 

It takes hours… Luffy’s arms and hands holding his swordsman fast to the bench. Usopp providing Chopper with instruments and fresh towels as needed while the Zoan deposits slice after slice of blackened skin into the small dish between Zoro’s feet. The swordsman’s making sharp, desperate, suffering noises though his nose… His captain can’t even feel his arms and fingers after a while. He doesn’t even know if Chopper is near done because his eyes are focused on the shuddering gasps visible on Zoro’s mutilated chest. He doesn’t say a word, just watches as thin lines of blood slip from between the many sutures keeping his nakama’s insides from spilling out all over the floor.


	2. The Morning After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew settles in as Merry heads for Alabasta.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great mind of Eiichiro Oda***

Sanji is alone on the top deck, and the sun is coming up when Chopper and Usopp push open the door with a soft click and squeak. They both look grey and haggard, but their eyes are open, and neither looks like wanting to go to sleep yet. Sanji drags on his cigarette, stubbing it out on the railing as sniper and tiny Zoan make their way over. 

“How’d it go?” the cook asks. 

Usopp ran a hand through his curly black hair, stretching his back and removing his goggles to dig fingers into his eyes. “Done.” He said. 

“There wasn’t as much decay as I thought.” Chopper added, “Which is good. I want to check him again tonight, just to make sure, but he should heal properly now.”

Sanji nodded. The sound of the sea and light rustle of leaves from the navigator's mikan trees just above them is soothing, after listening all night to the muffled screams of the swordsman. Nami and Vivi had gone to bed just a few minutes ago, not able to stand the tension or the cold air any longer. He hoped they were asleep, because Vivi had looked so very tired. 

“I also re-sutured the places on his chest wound where some stitches had come undone. He’s aggravated it, and there was one place that was becoming infected.” Chopper didn’t voice his curiosity at how the green haired pirate had received such a large and vicious injury –as soon as he examined it he privately thought the man shouldn’t be alive – not after something like that… “He should let himself rest for a while, let his body catch up.” 

“He won’t.” Usopp told Chopper, leaning his elbows on the railing. “He’s not the ‘resting’ type.” 

**

Zoro breathed deeply, heavily, his whole body on fire from having been strained and tensed up all night while his crewmates saw to his injuries. His legs were wrapped up tight, not only his ankles, but down under each heel and up over his knees with clean white bandages. His chest too – the lower part of the scar where the damn cook had shoved his knee, and Chopper had sewn a few new stiches where the old ones had worried loose. It had been more than half a year since he received the wound from the shichibukai Dracule Mihawk, the man who stood at the top of his dream to be The Greatest Swordsman in the World. Those piercing gold eyes of the man who would be his rival still clear in his mind… so clear he could almost reach out and touch them. 

“Here.” Luffy’s strong arm wrapped quietly under Zoro’s sweaty shoulders, lifting him so that he could take in a swallow of water. He drank without complaint, and his tongue stopped tasting like sour sand paper. 

“…’s done?” he asked as his captain knelt over him. 

“Yea.” Luffy said. “Chopper wants Zoro to rest, and he wants to check him later. So Zoro’s gonna let him.” 

Luffy’s red vest had spots of dark wetness on it, and Zoro felt guilty knowing that his captain had been crying. “Oi.” he said, lifting a hand up to take Luffy’s wrist. “Don’t worry about me.” He said. 

The dark haired captain stared at him, brown eyes bright and misty. He wasn’t smiling, he couldn’t. “Have to –” He choked. “Have to worry about Zoro.” 

The green haired man watched his nakama. His shoulders shaking, but the boy just wipes his nose and gets up, facing away and pulling his straw hat forward on his head. “Why’s that, Sencho?” 

Luffy laughed, but didn’t turn around. “Because.” He said. “Because Zoro doesn’t worry about himself.” 

**

Nami gently strokes her fingers through Vivi’s long blue hair the color of the summer sky. The princess had finally fallen asleep, her cheeks still wet from crying all night. Nami had been crying too, and she wasn’t sure if it was because of her crewmate’s condition, or a physical sympathy for the woman she laid with, wrapped up in soft blankets and pillows. It was getting light outside, and a gentle glow filtered through the round porthole to play across the princess’ pale skin. Nami glanced at the Eternal Pose sitting on the table beside their bed; the needle pointing steadily towards the bow of the ship. She didn’t worry about it. They had dropped anchor last night right after Chopper had insisted on checking Zoro’s wounds. After discovering the condition of his ankles, Nami supposes that the reindeer’s keen sense of smell had alerted him to the dangerous and potentially deadly state of Zoro’s taxed body. 

Nefertari Vivi made a small noise in her sleep, one arm reaching out, and Nami gently clasped her hand in hers. Interlacing their delicate fingers the navigator pulled her hand over her heart. “It’s okay.” She crooned softly. “We’ll get you home, no matter what it takes.” More tears bubbled up from between the princess’ closed eyelids. Her spot-billed duck, Carue, was curled up on the carpet next to the bed, snoring wetly. Nami leaned in close to kiss the princess, tasting the salty sadness on her lips. “No matter what it takes.” She whispered. 

**

Zoro began to recover properly for the first time since arriving in the Grand Line, now they had a competent medical professional on board. As the new Ship’s Doctor, Chopper’s first order of business was to forbid the first mate from weight training, and shortly after that – to forbid his drinking. 

“What the hell!” Zoro roared as Sanji poured the contents of the last bottle of sake out over the railing into the sea. 

“Doctor’s orders, Marimo!” said the cook, mischievous ire on his face. If the cook was enjoying the suffrage of his green haired crewmate, it would have been considered an understatement. Sanji tossed the empty bottle over the side with a jovial flick before turning to light his cigarette. Zoro’s face reddened at the knowledge that the Swirly Cook was allowed his vices, while he wasn’t even allowed to train. 

Luffy sat on Merry’s figurehead, laughing his head off as Usopp and Chopper rocketed back and forth across the deck with Carue – playing tag and shouting animatedly while Sanji and Zoro exchanged increasingly vulgar insults back and forth and posturing like two clashing alley cats. Nami and Vivi, sitting side-by-side above them in the shade of the navigator’s mikan trees, sipping drinks and giggling at the rambunctious crew. 

They were making good speed, ship right on course with the Eternal Pose Sanji had found on Little Garden – leading them directly to Alabasta where Vivi’s father, Nefertari Cobra, was King. Vivi had told Nami all about the engineered rebellion being incited by the villainous World-Government-Sanctioned-Pirate, Crocodile. The princess had spent two years undercover to attain the information, her and the guard captain Igaram, who had been killed at Whiskey Peak right before her eyes. 

“One million of my people are spoiling for this battle.” Vivi breathed. “I have to stop it.”

Nami poked her straw at a cherry wedged in the bottom of her glass. Vivi had been fourteen years old when she had left her kingdom and country behind to chase after answers. Nami had been young too, when she became a thief to try and buy her freedom back from the terrible man who killed her foster mother. Both women were only sixteen years old, and people still called them young… “You will.” The redhead said brightly, “You’ve got us, after all!” 

The princess smiled, allowing herself to laugh as Sanji and Zoro slammed up against the rail with enough force to rattle the whole ship and Usopp to brandish his fist at them, “Quit damaging the damn ship!”


	3. Boundaries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy crosses a line, and Nami gives Vivi a little comfort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great mind of Eiichiro Oda***

The days pass pretty uneventfully, Zoro considered – except for a rather disturbing and thankfully brief visit by a gay ballerina, who turned out to be a pretty high-ranking enemy who had managed to catalog half the crew using some weird ability that allows him to mimic their appearances. They’ll deal with that issue later, the swordsman smiles to himself. They’re pretty lucky to have met him actually, that Mr. Two character. 

“Oi, Zoro.” Luffy came up on his left. It was getting dark out, the sun hovering just above the horizon with orange-crimson clouds swimming on the surface of the sea. The weather had begun to flux again in a weird way – well, weird means normal on the Grand Line. It had been blisteringly hot all day, and the cool breeze that accompanied nightfall felt good. 

“Sencho.” Zoro nodded. 

The captain sat down next to him. They were alone at the stern of the ship, everybody else having gone inside for dinner. Zoro privately wondered why his captain wasn’t with them – the rubber man never seemed to stop eating. Luffy’s twitchy, almost nervous, energy keeps him pretty active. Laughing right down in his guts and playing games and pointing out everything from islands to snails. Now however, Zoro couldn’t see or sense any of that. His captain was calm and focused, sitting beside him with the orange glow of early evening dancing on his straw hat. 

“Chopper says Zoro can start training again tomorrow.” He says, “If he doesn’t overdue it, or take off his bandages.” 

Zoro snorts. “So you’re here to make it a captain’s order?” 

“It is a captain’s order.” Luffy tells him. The brim of his hat tipped right down over his eyes. “Need Zoro.” He says. “Need everybody – and they need to be alright.” 

“I’m fine.” The swordsman says. He sits down beside his captain, folding his arms behind his head. “You worry too much, Sencho.” The rubber man shifts, putting his head down on his swordsman’s crossed legs. Zoro opened one eye to look at him. “Oi, I’m not a pillow, you know.” 

“Does Zoro like to hurt himself?” Luffy asked. One hand wandering up to touch the handle of Wado Ichimonji. 

Zoro shivered when he heard Wado giggle… Kuina’s giggle! He swallowed. “What’re you talking about?” he asked. 

Luffy’s fingers searched the white pommel of the katana almost absentmindedly. “Zoro gets cut by Buggy, then again by those cats… gets his chest opened up when that Hawk-guy shows up… then he tries to cut off his own feet…” The captain’s fingers close over the hilt, and Zoro flinches – because Wado gasps. 

“Oi!” Zoro pulls away from Luffy, but his captain’s fingers don’t release the white katana, and with a familiar *shhink, the meito slides free of her scabbard and glitters in the dying sunlight. 

“What?” Luffy asks, Wado Ichimonji held casually in his hand. Zoro’s sprung backward, staring at his meito in his captain’s grip, breathing short and fast and listening hard. The dark haired pirate observes that Zoro’s eyes are fixed on the katana, and he slowly shifts the blade to lay its smooth edge against his shoulder, but instead of seeing this as a safe action – as his captain had intended – Zoro lets out a strange sound, like he’s been punched in the stomach. 

“Give her back?” he says, and he’s having trouble breathing.

“Her?” Luffy asks, but he’s lowering the katana down anyway, handing it back to Zoro. The swordsman takes Kuina’s blade in unsteady fingers, eyes searching every inch of metal and pearl inlay and delicate cloth fold wrapped over the hilt. “Oi?” Luffy puts a hand on Zoro’s arm, but he’s instantly thrown off. 

“Don’t!” Zoro hisses, and he sheaths the white sword. “Don’t touch me!” 

**

Two days later, and Usopp is sitting cross legged on his workshop platform in Merry’s dining room. He’s fitting springs and cogs to a cylindrical metal tube. Humming to himself as he peers through his goggles and spins the dials to adjust their magnification. Chopper and Sanji are at the table playing a game of cards, or trying to – Chopper had never seen playing cards before, so the ship’s cook decided to use the long hours at sea with nothing to do to teach the Zoan. The weather out on deck had started out wet and cold, thick black clouds swirling miserably, but fifteen minutes ago it turned fine and warm, with no trace of a clouds in sight. Luffy was already outside in it, his straw hat drawn over his eyes as he leaned back on the ship’s figurehead. He’s been napping a lot more recently because he’s not sleeping at night. Neither he nor Zoro have spoken since the captain put his hands on the swordsman’s katana. Nami and Vivi, having just gotten out of the shower together, are following Carue below deck to the woman’s quarters. Nami’s eyes linger for a moment on her sleeping captain, hoping like hell he doesn’t suddenly drop off the side and sink to the bottom of the sea without anyone noticing. The clanking of Zoro’s weights are audible even from the other side of the cabin. Since Chopper had finally relented and allowed the green haired pirate to train, he’s been doing little else. The navigator shakes her head and follows Vivi inside. 

“Luffy-san’s been very quiet.” Vivi observes, leaning back into Nami as the redhead brushes out the princess’ long hair. Carue rolls himself up and closes his eyes to nap as the two women sit together on the bed. 

Nami presses bare skin against Vivi’s. “There’s nothing to do, cooped up on the ship like this. He’s probably just bored.” 

The princess reaches back to grasp Nami’s hips, sinking into the navigator’s warmth. “Mr. Bushido seems upset too.” She says while Nami gently lays a smoothed portion of blue hair across her shoulder and continues on. “I thought that their fight at Whiskey Peak was unusual, but I guess they argue a lot?” she asks. 

Nami adjusts her knees, supporting the princess’s lower back between them. “I wouldn’t worry. They’re a little hot-headed…. Okay, they’re really hot headed – but they’ll keep their word, we’ll get you home.” 

Vivi crooned for Nami, the redhead putting down the brush to brushing her fingers down the princess’ neck and shoulders and grasp her breasts – rolling sensitive flesh between them. “I know.” She keens, pressing herself into the woman at her back. “I – I just….”

“Don’t worry.” The redheaded navigator’s lips tickle at Vivi’s ear, hot breath washing across her cheek and neck. Nami’s arms wrap around, palms pressing and caressing the slender sides of the Desert Princess. Slowly she pulls the woman’s hips against hers, and she spreads her legs wide on the bed, leaning her head back to allow the navigator to join their wet lips. Nami reaches forward to slip one finger into the princess, feeling the heat of her increase as they kiss. “They’re strong boys, and they can take care of themselves.” She breathes. 

Vivi allows her head to rest back on the redhead’s shoulder as she’s pleasured; hot, wet fingers reaching inside, equally hot and wet fingers slowly rubbing that special tender place just under her belly, coaxing her towards wonderful release. She closes her eyes as Nami tastes her shoulder.

**

Sanji adds a handful of spices to the pot he’s been tending on and off for the last hour, having just taught Chopper the rudiments of Fisherman’s Poker. The Zoan wanders over to Usopp’s workshop space. 

“What is that?” the reindeer squeaks, poking a hoof at the metal tube in the snipers hands.

“It’s a secret.” Usopp tells him, two fingers tapping the side of his long nose. “It’ll be amazing though, everything I do is amazing! Eh, Chopper?” 

“A – Aye!” 

“Yutz.” Sanji mutters before quirking a smile. “Ahh… but Nami-swan and Vivi-chwan are amazing!” He simpers, “I hope they enjoyed their bath!” 

“I’m sure they did.” Usopp murmurs, clapping his hand over his mouth when Sanji turns towards him – but he seemed to be safe, because the cook didn’t appear to have heard his exact words. 

The blond returns to his pot; tasting the broth inside before closing his eyes with rapturous thoughts, “Tonight’s Stew of Everlasting Love will be especially delicious!”


	4. Getting Weird

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A confusing conversation throws Zoro, and Luffy's in no better shape it seems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great mind of Eiichiro Oda***

“One-thousand-four-hundred-eighty-one… One-thousand-four-hundred-eighty-two… One-thousand-four-hundred-eighty-three…” Zoro counted quietly to himself, the slow pace of words as his muscles preformed familiar and practiced movements, weights clanking like a metronome, and his heartbeat pulsing strong in his neck. It was what he knew, for as long as he could remember. Training day and night, night and day listening to the steady song of cicadas and wind in the grass at Isshin Dojo as a child; the constant wind pushing over the sea and gentle creak of Merry’s hull had a similar effect on him. 

“One-thousand-four-hundred-ninety-nine… One-thousand-four-hundred-fifty.” With a grunt he lowered the heavy weight onto the deck, reaching for a towel to wipe his sweating face and shoulders. His eyes landed on his three katana propped up against the railing. Wado and Kitetsu and Yubashiri. His katana. 

“Oi.” Luffy’s feet swing over the ledge just above the swordsman, Nami’s mikan trees tossing about in the wind behind him. 

“Sencho.” Zoro said, wiping his face. 

“Zoro’s doing better?” the captain asked. 

The swordsman watched his captain carefully. “Can’t complain.” He said. 

Jumping down, Luffy pulled something from inside his vest. “Sanji missed one.” He told Zoro, grinning as he held out an unopened bottle of sake. Zoro took it. 

“Thanks.” He said, pulling the cap and taking a long swallow. He offered the bottle to his captain. 

“Don’t drink, remember?” Luffy reminded him, crossing the landing to lean against the rail. 

“You keep saying that.” Zoro wiped his chin. “But I still can’t understand why.” 

“Tastes bad.” Luffy shrugs. 

Zoro drains the bottle, his head spinning the tiniest bit, nice and warm because he hasn’t had a drink for a few days. He chuckles. “Captain of a pirate crew – the future Pirate King? Nobody’d guess he didn’t drink.” 

“I’ll still be the Pirate King.” Luffy grins, turning and leaning back on his elbows. “Whether I drink or not – so long’s I can beat the crap outa all those guys at the top.” 

“Makes you a man, huh?” he asked. 

Luffy’s smile twitched a little, but didn’t entirely fade from his face. “Got nothing to do with being a man.” He said. The captain and his swordsman shared a long – a very long look that should have been full of meaning and understanding, or agitation… something… but it was empty, and left Zoro with a hollow feeling in his guts. “Does Zoro hear his swords?” Luffy asked suddenly.

Whatever he thought his captain was going to say, it wasn’t that. “What?” 

“Zoro.” Said the dark haired pirate. “He’s got three katana, and they’ve all three got names – I’ve heard Zoro talking to them. Do they talk back?” 

Shifting uncomfortably the green haired pirate scratches the back of his head. “Maybe. Why?” 

Luffy puts his head down, hiding his face almost completely under the brim of his straw hat. “Who’s she?” he asks. Zoro can see that his fingers are gripping at the rail. He’s still and steady again, like before, his captain. 

The swordsman doesn’t answer. He crosses the deck and belts his katana back in place at his hip, only vaguely aware of the ringing in his ears and the trembling fingers as he pulls each sash-tie. 

“Zoro didn’t want me to touch her.” Luffy called, just as he turned to walk away, and the green haired pirate froze. “She’s someone pretty special to Zoro, right?” He could hear his Captain’s footsteps draw near, sandals flapping on the deck, and his back muscles knit. But Luffy’s hand just falls down onto his shoulder, “I’ll never touch her again.” He assures him with a voice Zoro is sure – dead sure he’s never heard him use before, and it freaks the fuck out of him. His captain then walks passed and out of sight around the corner.

 

When Zoro’s heart settles down, no longer frantically beating against his ribs like it wants to come free of his chest and jump into the surf, he heads in for dinner. Sanji is busy fawning noisily over Nami and Vivi, Usopp and Chopper are discussing flash bombs and rumble balls when he takes a seat between Vivi and his captain. Luffy’s got his cheeks stuffed to bursting with fried fish and rice, determinedly not looking at his swordsman as he chews and shovels more food towards him. 

“We should be two weeks out from Alabasta, maybe a little longer.” Vivi was saying to Nami, map spread out on the only bare stretch of table between them. “See this outcropping.” She pointed. “We saw that today, I’m sure of it.” 

Nami smiled. “Good, we’ll get everything ready to make landfall well before it’s time.” 

“Yosh!” Luffy put a fist in the air. “I can beat up that Crocodile when we get there, right, Vivi?” 

Sanji chucked. “Oi, oi, we’re stopping a rebellion here.” He reminded him. 

Usopp thrust a protective arm around his plate as Luffy made a swing to grab any unprotected meat. “I’ve never seen a desert before!” Chopper squealed, turning bright eyes on Vivi. “What’s it like?” 

The prospect of making landfall within the next month was welcome news. Zoro had been a pirate for a while now, but these longer voyages always seemed to make his legs feel funny. He supposed the sensitivity would go away with time, but for now he was itching to stand on something solid. He reached forward for a roll just as Luffy reached across for another helping of fish. Their hands suddenly brushed up against each other, and both pirates flinched, jumping up and back so forcefully that the whole table shuttered and scraped a few inches on the floor. 

Standing facing one another Luffy and Zoro panted, hearts pounding with genuine, painful, unexplainable panic. Their nakama, who had been wrapped up in their own conversations, had fallen completely silent, all eyes on the captain and swordsman. Luffy swallowed his mouthful of food, and wiped his face on the back of his hand. Not for one second taking his eyes from the green haired pirate standing in front of him. Zoro too, didn’t dare look away from the round brown eyes of his captain. 

“Oi, oi?” Sanji’s voice broke like shattering glass on the air. “You two alright?” Vivi’s took Nami’s hand as the cook got up from the table and headed warily over to them, carefully sizing up the expressions on each man’s face. “You shitty bastards are scaring the ladies.” He admonishes. 

He doesn’t get an immediate response. 

Luffy is the first to move, looking away from Zoro and pulling his straw hat up and onto his head. “Sorry.” He says quietly. He hurries around the swordsman for the door, exiting for the dark deck behind. 

Zoro’s gust twist up, and he’s stunned, mouth half open.

“Oi, Marimo?” Sanji gives his nakama’s shoulder a small shake and Zoro sort of… squawks. He’s turned around and out the door before anything else can happen.


	5. The Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Realization starts to dawn on Zoro, and when a storm moves in he's left with plenty of time to wonder what he should do next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great mind of Eiichiro Oda***

It's dark out, and the air hovering over the deck is warm, not overly heavy, but sort of… thick. Luffy is curled up just behind his normal spot on Merry’s figurehead. Zoro doesn’t immediately see him because he’s hunched back into the dark shadow cast by the inner wall of the ship. He’s got his knees pulled right up to his chin, face buried against them with his straw hat pulled down so low that Zoro can’t see his face. Truthfully, he doesn’t have a clue what happened in there. His fingers had brushed Luffy’s hand and he… his stomach had turned over and it was like he caught on fire. Did it happen to Luffy too? His captain’s eyes had flown open, he saw it because they were looking at each other the second that it had happened. His ears had rung and his whole body shot up and back, shying away from a white hot flash that had made his head hurt. 

Zoro swallowed hard before crossing the landing and lower deck, taking the far stairs towards where Luffy was huddled a few paces away from their ship’s cannon. Luffy didn’t appear to be crying, but he had this strange nagging feeling that he might be… had a strange nagging feeling that he needed to make sure. 

“Luffy?” Zoro knelt down next to his captain, hand extended to touch the younger man’s shoulder, but he recoiled – balling his fingers up into a fist as he decided to just sit down instead. “Are you okay?” he asked. 

“Zoro’s on fire.” Luffy breathed, not looking up. The captain pulled his legs in tighter. “He… He flashed, and I…” 

“I’m not on fire.” Zoro assured his captain. “…and what do you mean, I flashed.” 

“Too bright.” Luffy said. “Ask them!” 

And Zoro was certain that Luffy was crying then, because his voice cracked with a sob, pulling himself into such a tight and constricted position that it could only have been possible for someone made of rubber. “Who?” 

Luffy lifted his head, eyes glittering just under the brim of his straw hat. They flicked to Zoro’s side. The swordsman put a hand down on the hilts of his three katana. It was such a frightened, strangled look of terror his captain had, that Zoro felt his chest was being split open… and he knew what that felt like, but… why? He reached slowly down and removed the sash-tie around each sword, carefully leaning his blades against the inner wall of the ship. “Luffy–” His captain flinched, but as Zoro’s arms wrapped around the younger pirate, he allowed it, and after a short moment he reached back, placing both hands on his swordsman’s shoulder blades, gripping handfuls of his shirt. 

The dark haired pirate clung to the swordsman, no longer actively crying, just still tense, and desperate. He didn’t seem to want to let the older man go. Zoro gripped back, sensing his captain’s anxiety, though not really sure where it was coming from. He didn’t mind just remaining with him for a while, just like this. Everybody should be sufficiently freaked out enough to stay in the kitchen and leave them alone. 

“Zoro?” Luffy whispered. He had a hard time hearing him. 

“Aye, Sencho?” 

Hands trembling, the captain pushed back a little so that he was facing the other man. Forehead pressed against his, and he could hear the chime of his brass earrings. Zoro’s heart was thrashing against his ribs again, and Luffy smelled like salt. Merry’s deck pitched on a swell and the two pirates were thrown against the inner wall, lips pressing together. The ship fell back onto the sea, and spray fanned out across the deck. Zoro and Luffy broke apart, both wide-eyed and winded. 

“Oi.” Zoro gasped. One hand came up to touch his lips. Luffy did the same. Merry pitched again, the roar of angry waves growing steadily louder, and the dim light that had been present flickered and died behind rolls of a new and sudden storm. 

“Turn us about!” Nami shouted, the wooden door cracking against the cabin wall as she threw it open. Usopp and Sanji were halfway up the rigging to pull up the sail, and Chopper’s Heavy Point shoulders were visible through the door as he negotiated the helm. Vivi stood next to Nami, both women holding to the doorframe so they wouldn’t be thrown off their feet. 

“Oi, you shitty bastards! Get up and help!” Sanji shouted from where he and Usopp were wrapping the main sail. Zoro was suddenly very aware of how he had Luffy pressed up against the inner wall with his legs wrapped around his waist. He turned back to Luffy and his captain gave a little yelp. His hands clapping down onto his lap as he wriggled away from the swordsman and hurried across the deck to the platform where Nami was standing. The redhead shouted something that Zoro couldn’t catch for the sound of the rising gale, and his captain rushed away from her. Zoro cursed and gathered up his katana – belting them securely before he joined in with the others to keep Merry from being swallowed by the angry teeth of the Grand Line. 

**

The storm lasted for several hours, long enough for the sky to start to lighten and pale with impending dawn. There had been wind, snow, hail – hail the size of fucking fists. Zoro leaned back against the storeroom wall, watching thick clouds shred and thin right before his eyes. 

“Wew!” Sanji jumped down from the mast, reaching for a cigarette only to make a hurt face when he realized the pack was wet through. Usopp gave him a consoling pat on the back over his ruined tobacco. 

“That’s the first real heavy storm since before Whiskey Peak.” Nami was telling Vivi with a shocked, slightly harangued voice. The two women hurried inside and Nami started digging around with her sea charts. 

Chopper, having secured the helm, reverted back to his smaller form and came out onto the deck. “Is everybody okay?” 

“Yea!” Usopp called. Sanji had already disappeared through the hatch into the men’s quarters for a dry pack of cigarettes. 

Zoro tied off the rope he had been clinging to. The rigging had snapped and shredded in several places, and if he didn’t tie it off the main mast was going to come down. He made a mental note to inform Usopp about the damage next time they were in the position to buy supplies. Nami appeared again on the landing with Vivi, a large map held out in front of their faces as Vivi pointed out solitary rocks and patterns of reef visible despite the still weak light. Luffy stood at the bow, straw hat fluttering about his shoulders as it hung on its cord. He was breathing hard as he stared over the ocean, watching the swells as if they had badly insulted him. 

“Gonna have a tough time if we get caught in many more of those.” Sanji muttered, sitting at the hatch opening and lighting his cigarette. 

“You could always quit.” Usopp muttered. “Oi! Chopper! You wanna take watch or sleep?” the sniper wandered away towards the Zoan, and Zoro found himself standing on the main deck with Sanji a few paces away. His eyes fixed on Luffy’s stiff back. 

The cook took another drag from his cigarette, following the swordsman’s gaze. He gave a long, shuddering sigh. Getting up from the hatch the blond man wandered away to the kitchen; Nami and Vivi still pointing and discussing the few rocks and reefs visible under the surf, and Usopp and Chopper trying to work out watch-shifts between them. Zoro didn’t hear any of it. There was just wind, waves – and the ringing in his ears. 

“Luffy!” he called. The captain turned, his eyes slightly wide. Now that the storm was over he was once again faced with a strange and uncomfortable twisting in his guts, it got worse when he looked at his first mate. Zoro, however, thought he finally understood what was happening. 

Taking the stairs two at a time, Zoro's hand locked into a handful of Luffy’s vest to drag him back down to the main deck. Nami and Vivi nodded to each other and lowered their map just in time to see the Swordsman say something to his captain, hurrying him down the mast ladder into the men’s quarters and following quickly after with a pinched but almost… pleased… expression on his face. 

“Nami-san.” Vivi said, one slender hand pointing as the hatch flipped closed. “Did you see…?”

“Ayh! Nami-swan, Vivi-chwan, would you care for some tea?” Sanji appeared between his mellorines, legs noodling with surprising vigor. “Or a snack… oi, what is it?” The blond cook asked, noticing both beauties suppressing blushes and giggles behind their hands. 

“Oh? … it’s nothing Sanji-san.” Vivi smiled. “Some tea would be wonderful.” 

“Ah!” Usopp yawned, “Okay, I’m off to bed.” 

“Oh, no.” Nami took hold of the sniper’s shoulder as he tried to get by. “You’ll have tea too, come on.”

“Eh?”


	6. Sencho?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy's first erection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great mind of Eiichiro Oda***

Zoro pushed Luffy’s shoulders down onto the couch, his breath catching in his chest as the two pirates suddenly found themselves both groping at each other’s clothing without having said one word to each other. The swordsman had already removed his katana, and his shirt, and Luffy’s fingers were struggling in his hamaraki while the green haired man slid a few digits under the waistline of his captain’s denim shorts. 

“Zoro–”

“Just rip the damn thing if you can’t get it.” 

Tearing fabric… and then more tearing fabric. Luffy’s straw hat went rolling across the floor on its brim, a slight rustle as it made contact with the wall and then settled there. Zoro’s hands were on his captain, taking in his temperature and texture. Neither of them seemed to be able to calm down, breath gasping and catching in their throats as they pressed wildly against each other, rolling off the couch in a mess of naked flesh and flailing limbs. Zoro’s head collided with the table against the far wall, but he didn’t care. Grunting for the pain he brought his lips down over Luffy’s and they kissed messily, tongues tasting and groping behind each other’s teeth. 

When they were able to break apart they flopped onto their backs, shoulders touching as they tried to regain their breath. Zoro’s heart was galloping, thumping too hard and hot. He thought he might die. He was trying to calm down, actively forcing air in and out at a steady rate, when Luffy’s laughter caught his ears. The younger pirate laughing so loud and free that it echoed off the walls and floor – echoed into his own lungs to rebound against his ribcage. 

“Oi, oi! You! They’ll hear you!” 

“So what?” Luffy laughed. But a moment later and he was quiet again. He rolled, pulling himself over to straddle his swordsman. Zoro stared up into his captain’s face, eyes half lidded as he traced fingers over the older man’s chest; gently touching wounded tissue and brushing his sides. It tickled a little over his rib cage. “What does this mean?” Luffy asked. 

“What does what mean, Sencho?” Zoro asked. Luffy’s nude frame was warm pressed against his abdomen like that, heels pulled in along his outer thighs. 

Luffy shivered, watching his own hands moving across his swordsman’s skin with vague confusion. “This…” He said, and Zoro could hear in his voice that his captain was struggling to find and use words that didn’t often enter into his usual vocabulary. “Something about Zoro, and I wanna…” one hand traced up to roll the small nub of Zoro’s right nipple, and the green haired man crooned, tipping his head back, fingers gripping tight around his captain’s knees. “What is this?” Luffy asks. 

“What? Sex?” Zoro asked, gasping for the continued hot flares shooting across his pectorals. 

Luffy quirked an eyebrow at him. “Eh?” 

It occurred to Zoro with stabbing abruptivity, although now that he thought about it – it was hardly surprising that Luffy would have absolutely no idea what sex was, or even the concept of physical pleasure. He had walked in on the damn cook jerking off enough times, Usopp too, hell - even Nami and Vivi after the two women realized their infatuation… but he hadn’t even noticed, or found it odd that Luffy had never been the butt of a lewd joke or embarrassing encounter. Well, okay, maybe it wasn’t odd that Luffy was a virgin… that makes sense, but he knew about… things. He must, right? 

Zoro swallowed, reaching to take hold of his captain’s wrists. “You’re joking, right Sencho?” he asks him seriously. 

Luffy bit his lip, and shakes his head. 

“Sex, wanking, making love, orgasm… all new words for you?” 

The young captain nods. 

Zoro blinks before pushing himself up so that he’s cross legged, with Luffy straddling him, and he just holds the younger pirate to his chest. Dammit, Luffy… what the hell? How do you not know about this stuff? Zoro’s own experience is actually pretty limited. A pretty girl he’d met right before leaving the dojo, another pretty girl he’s paid for because he’d gotten bored and drunk and it seemed like a good idea. Johnny and Yosaku had introduced him to the concept of men with men, though they really hadn't gotten much farther than dirty stories and wanking together around the campfire. Dammit! He was just on the point of telling Luffy to get his clothes back on because they needed to discuss some things, when he noticed something hard poking him right in the gut. 

“Ah… uhn… Zoro?” Luffy’s eyes were wide and staring, staring at himself. His first erection? It was too weird for Zoro to comprehend that this really was the case. 

“Relax.” He told his captain, because he didn’t like the way the young pirate eyes stretched and he was starting to panic. “It’s okay, just –” 

“It kinda hurts.” Luffy says, the edge of a groan in his voice, and he leaned forward. His taught skin rubbed against Zoro’s stomach, and he keened, eyes flying even wider. “What… what is –?” 

Zoro watched heavy realization making subtle and obvious connections behind Luffy’s brown eyes. His captain’s hips grinding slowly forward and back to encourage further friction with the other man's abdomen, and Zoro let him. “It’s good, right Sencho?” he asked. 

Luffy nodded slowly. “It’s good.” 

“Oi,” Zoro pulled his captain into a deep and impassioned kiss. The swordsman’s hands slowly kneading the younger man’s back. “It’s okay.” He whispered, drawing away. Luffy was starting to hyperventilate. The older pirate carefully moved out from under him to pull down a few cushions from the sofa onto the floor. Luffy sitting to one side watching as his breathing gradually evened out enough to convince his first mate that he wasn’t about to pass out. 

Once Zoro was satisfied he had made a suitable space on the floor for his captain, he helped him onto his back. “Don’t worry.” He said, leaning over him. “This is gonna feel pretty weird, but you… just try to relax, okay?” 

Luffy nodded, propping himself up on his elbows as Zoro planted surprisingly soft kisses and bites on his exposed chest and abdomen, fingers quietly massaging his flanks and pectorals. His breath hiked again, suddenly, and his swordsman’s touch seemed to once again be too hot, like he was on fire. He jerked. “Z-Zoro!” 

The swordsman paused, reaching for his captain’s face he provided a soft kiss to his shaking lips before sighing heavily, “We can stop if you want.” 

Luffy tasted his swordsman on his tongue, and he thought wildly about what was happening. Did he want to stop? No – not really… “N-no.” he stammered. “It’s just… it’s weird.”

Hot guilt and just the faintest trace of acute shame twisted Zoro’s insides, and he sighed again. “It really is your first time.” He said. Part of him still – truly – didn’t want to believe it. He wondered again if he should stop, if he should tell Luffy that he just wasn’t ready. 

“I want Zoro.” Luffy had his eyes clamped shut, “Donno why, or how… I just… I know I want Zoro.” 

The swordsman watched his captain struggling. His eyes closed and scrunched up because he was clamping them shut so tightly. His hands were balled up into white fists, shoulder muscles all in knots and his abdominals bulged out oddly. He shook all over. Zoro leaned back so that he could raise his arms. “Oi, you gatta calm down.” He told his captain. “I won’t go anywhere. Not if you don’t want me to.” Raising his hands to Luffy’s shoulders he pushed the young pirate down into the cushions, passing his fingers across his collar bone and stomach and chest until the muscles started to unknit. After a little while Luffy opened his eyes, staring up to see Zoro’s quiet deliberation while he passed gentle heat across his body with the palms of his hands. 

“What’s Zoro gonna do?” Luffy asked hesitantly. 

The older man thought, he’d been thinking about what to “do” since they started rolling around on the floor, about all those stories that had gotten big laughs when he and Yosaku and Johnny talked about how men (especially sailors) would pleasure each other. He smiled as he decided on the best thing, the best thing to start with, anyway. 

“What?” Luffy asked, noticing the smirk that appeared on his swordsman’s lips. 

Zoro continued to pass his hands over Luffy’s abdomen in wide circles, turning his palms to manipulate the tissue underneath. He had been taught that these motions were good for circulation, good for calming someone down, good for all kinds of things… “It’s hard to explain.” He told his captain. “But, I’m gonna make you feel good, okay?” It was pretty vague. Zoro knew it was pretty vague. But how do you explain these kinds of things to a virgin? And not just a virgin, a virgin who’s never even touched themselves.

“Zoro’s sure it… it won’t hurt?” 

A tight cord in the swordsman’s chest snapped, and for just a second he wanted to cry – or die – he wasn’t sure which. “Trust me?” he asked. 

Luffy nodded. There was no hesitation. They both had that between them… at least… Trust.


	7. What Now?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Secrets don't keep on the Going Merry, and Zoro has an unlikely Heart-to-Heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great mind of Eiichiro Oda***

Sanji had just put out lunch; big cuts of roast with greens, and cubed mikan, and chocolate, plus an array of other fancy looking things that Zoro didn’t know the name for. When the swordsman pushed open the door to step inside everyone fell obviously quiet. Vivi and Nami had tall glasses of some fruity drink. They placed them down on the table as the green haired pirate came inside and closed the door. Chopper was out in the crow’s nest, and Usopp was curled up asleep on his workshop platform with his head on a bag of rice. 

“Afternoon, Shithead.” Sanji said, indicating the empty bench and two clean plates intended for him and Luffy. 

“Love-Cook.” Zoro sat down and loaded his plate, trying his best not to meet Nami and Vivi’s rather dubious expressions. 

“Where’s Luffy?” Sanji asked, leaning back in his chair so that two legs came off the floor. He lit a cigarette. 

“Asleep.” Zoro grunted around a mouthful of roast. “He’ll be up in a bit. He’ll be hungry.” 

Nami giggled. “I’ll bet.” Vivi’s hand shot up over her mouth. 

“Eh?” Sanji inquired. 

“If I’m right?” Nami sang, twirling one finger in her hair. “Am I right, Zoro?” 

“Right about what?” Sanji demanded. 

“Did you?” Nami asked Zoro. The older pirate was blushing furiously, reaching for beer. 

“Nami-san…” Vivi was blushed pink; looking highly uncomfortable with the way the redhead was trying to pry the truth so indelicately from the Strawhat swordsman. 

“Oi! What do you mean…” Sanji’s chair came down with a heavy Thwack! Prompting a sleepy grumble from the ship’s sniper before Usopp rolled over and continued to snore. “You mean?” the cook inhaled the rest of his cigarette in one breath, eyes locked on his green haired crewmate. 

“You guys are a bunch of assholes, you know that don’t you?” Zoro gasped after gulping down an entire mug of beer. 

“But did you?” Nami asked, leaning forward with her chin in her hands. Eyes big and imploring and watching his shaking fingers as he tried to cut up the meat on his plate. 

Vivi jerked when the outer door opened again and their captain came in, stretching and smiling and sniffling the air. “MEAT!” he shouted. Usopp rolled off his platform and into the wall, muttering about inconsiderate rubber bastards as he picked himself up and retreated to the men’s quarters, since Zoro and Luffy were up in the dining room finally. (Nami had told the sniper that they were fighting and he couldn’t head below deck until they had finished.)

Luffy flew onto the bench beside his swordsman and pulled a hunk of steaming roast towards him, drooling and thanking Sanji for preparing his favorite – like he always did when the cook made meat. Sanji assured him it was no trouble at all, eyes still fixed onto the side of Zoro’s flushed face because he had not answered his or his mellorines’ question. 

“How did you sleep, Luffy?” Nami crooned, smirking when she saw Zoro shiver. She wouldn’t! 

Luffy grinned, but didn’t answer as he loaded up his plate with salad and potatoes. His hip was touching Zoro’s, and he was pretty preoccupied about that. 

“Oi, Shitty Gommu, Nami-swan asked you something.” Sanji joined in. Zoro kicked him under the table, but he was able to pass it off as a cough. “Ag-ha! Don’t be… rude!” 

“Slept fine.” Luffy lied, and as ever, it was pretty awfully executed; his face as red as his vest and he couldn’t meet anyone’s eyes. 

Zoro grimaced. 

Chopper came in just before Nami could call Luffy out on his bluff however, settling himself at the end of table. His nose twitched and he looked suddenly directly at Zoro. The swordsman felt all the color drain out of his face. The ship’s doctor’s eyes flicked between him and Luffy. 

“Any change in the weather, Chopper?” Nami asked, disappointed that her current efforts for juicy gossip were turning out fruitless. 

“eh? Oh! No change.” The reindeer tells Nami before sharing another pointed look at Zoro, the swordsman giving him the very slightest of head-shakes to get his point across. 

Luffy shifted to grab another portion of meet and his hip slid against Zoro’s leg, producing a strangled noise that was both very unusual for the swordsman to make – and also very inappropriate for the dinner table. The captain froze, except for his arm which sprung back with a rubbery snap. Nami’s grinning like the goddamn morning sun. It was Sanji’s turn to go pale, staring at the green haired pirate with a look of disbelief as his cigarette went out. Zoro, flushed and trembling, excused himself from the table and was out the door in a heartbeat. His captain’s eyes lingering on the door. 

“Luffy!” Nami moaned, taking his hand from across the table. “Did you guys do it!” she implored. She was dying to know, and there were no delicacies with Luffy – She’d learned that darn well since she’d started sailing with him. “Ne?”

Luffy laughed, “What d’ya mean?” he asked, though admittedly rather sheepishly. 

“Did you do it?” she repeated. “You know.” She made a little nudge with her chin. 

“I am NOT listening to this!” Sanji roared, getting up out of his chair, but he couldn’t go very far. The kitchenette was only about four paces away from the table. 

Luffy stared blankly back at Nami, and when she didn’t elaborate he took another bite, smiling to himself with a little more shimmering zealousness than the day before – or really the whole week. 

Nami groaned and put her fist down on the table. “Did you and Zoro… you know… ne?” 

“Yea, I guess?” Luffy looked a little confused, not sure what she was talking about, and the navigator could tell. She let out a disparaging sound and flumped her face into crossed arms next to her plate. 

Vivi however, was looking rather thoughtful, and she let her chin tilt slightly to one side. “Luffy-san?” she asked softly. “Have you had a girlfriend before, or a… or a boyfriend?” 

Luffy shook his head, chomping down another mouthful of meat. “I only ever hung out with my brothers, Dadan and the mountain bandits didn’t bother us much.” He said, swinging his feet under the table. 

Vivi nodded. “So… nobody’s ever told you about…” she looked around at the table, but pressed on anyway. “…about sex?” 

"S-e-x?" Luffy repeated, wrapping his tongue around the word in a way that made clear that it wasn't usual for him to say, or even think about. “We talked a little about that last night, Zoro and me… Still really don’t get it though.” Luffy admitted, gulping down a glass of milk. 

Sanji, who had been trying to drown out their conversation by animatedly sacrificing innocent carrots, froze, knife held halfway through one of the stalks.

“You don’t know what it is?” Vivi asked. “So you, you never wondered?” 

“Mmm. Never really come up before now.” Luffy laughed, wiping his face on his hand. “Zoro kept saying it was too hard to explain…” 

Vivi’s eyes went wide at the curious – and so innocent – look on Luffy’s face. Nami’s head had come back up, mouth open. Sanji put down his knife, wiping his hands on a towel. “Sencho.” He muttered. Luffy looked over at the cook, but he didn’t say anything else. Pulling open the outer door the blond stepped outside onto the deck. They heard the flick of his lighter as the door swung closed. 

**

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Zoro’s arms were shuddering so badly that his kata looked more like he was trying to chop down an invisible tree… His feet kept landing in the wrong spot, and his back… For fuck sakes! He cursed to himself, overbalancing and actually dropping Wado. The white katana went clattering across the deck as Zoro sank to his knees. His breath coming out in painfully sharp gasps. 

“Gatta be true then?” 

Zoro tilted his head to see Sanji saunter out from behind the steps that led up to Nami’s mikan grove. “What do you want?” he growled, reaching for his dropped sword. 

“I want to talk, Marimo.” Sanji said, sitting down on the steps with one leg pulled up and blowing out a fine puff of smoke. “I’ve spent my whole damn life at sea… seen all sorts of shitty things. A small ass pirate crew like this with a dumb-ass captain and a muscled up bonehead like you…” he took another drag. “Crews and dreams have been shattered by less.” 

“It’s none of your business.” 

“Maybe, but these being such close quarters, privacy’s a pretty expensive luxury… You outta know the girls have got Luffy pretty opened up in there.” 

Zoro’s hand flinched. “Yea?” 

“Oh yea.” 

The green haired pirate released a breathy curse. “What he say? Why’re you here?” he asked, sinking back to sit on his heels. 

Sanji threw his spent cigarette over the side of the ship. “He said he didn’t know what sex was.” 

Zoro nodded miserably, rubbing his hands over his face. 

“Said you and he talked about it, but you didn’t really explain anything.” 

Again, Zoro nods. 

“You should tell him, if you wanna do anything.” 

“We did something.” He told Sanji. He wasn’t sure exactly why he was telling him, he just did. 

“Oh?” 

“Just… a little.” Zoro confessed. He couldn’t look at the cook. He couldn’t really understand why he was having this goddamn conversation. 

“I see.” Sanji said, shaking his head. “You want it to go somewhere, this thing you two have?” 

“What kind of question is that?” Zoro asked. 

“Something you should think about, shitty swordsman. Luffy’s never really struck me as the kind of guy who thinks on the short term.”

The swordsman swallows hard. “What do you think I should do?”

Sanji scoffs. “The whole world’s coming to a goddamn end if you’re really asking me for advice.” 

“Well, you are the Love-Cook, asshole.” 

“Shitty Marimo.”

“Dartboard.”

“Natural treasure.”


	8. Deck Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chopper decides to give Zoro a gift, Usopp lets off a few fireworks, and Luffy decides to start making some changes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great mind of Eiichiro Oda***

Nami and Vivi – with the help of several charts, maps, and the princess’ general knowledge of that particular stretch of the Grand Line – determined that they had crossed the weather stabilization point, and were now in the summer-island climate that surrounded Alabasta. As long as the wind held out, they would arrive within the next six to eight days. In celebration of this news, along with a strange need that everyone suddenly seemed to have to ‘let their hair down’, Sanji proposed a deck party. Everyone sitting down for a meal at the same time hadn’t happened voluntarily for a while, and opening several barrels of good sake, wine, and beer, was not only welcomed, but damn necessary, in Sanji’s opinion. Zoro hadn’t even gotten angry with him for admitting that a veritable horde of alcohol had been squired below deck without the swordsman knowing, the cook only pretending that he had poured out the last bottle after his ankles had been treated. Another reason why the cook felt a party was in order was the fact that – thanks to the warm weather – the ice they had re-packed their dinosaur meat in after leaving Drum Island was almost melted, and if they didn’t want over eighty pounds of meat going bad, they needed to eat it. 

Both Nami and Vivi were taking the deck party very much to heart. Nami knew that after they brought the princess home, there would be fewer opportunities for relaxing and taking baths together. They would be in a mad dash to save a country and, after that… Nami didn’t want to think about leaving Vivi, but she knew their time together was growing short. Vivi knew it too, but the smile on her face betrayed nothing of her anguish that she would have to say goodbye to the redheaded navigator all too soon. They instead focused on being together, festooning paper lamps in the rigging, and Usopp brought out his good paint to transform barrels and crates into marvelous works of art stacked up one on top of the other, the two women laughed from the very bottom of their hearts. 

“Nami-swan!” Sanji bowed low, a tiny plate in his hand. “If I may have the pleasure… that you be the taste tester of tonight’s dish of love!” 

Nami gave Sanji a rare smile for his efforts this evening, and dipped her finger into the sauce. Putting it to her lips she squealed with delight, proclaiming it to be delicious beyond her wildest dreams. The cook burst into tears of heartfelt joy as he bounded back to the kitchen to continue preparing the feast they would all enjoy that evening. 

Zoro had excused himself from decorating on the grounds that he wasn’t very good at those sorts of things, and had retreated to the ship’s stern to continue weight training. Luffy had been all too willing to help, but after a few minutes proved too rambunctious to be tolerated, and had been excused. After being dismissed, he found himself lying under Nami’s sweet smelling mikan trees listening to his swordsman counting out his pushups and body lifts, and then the hum of his swords as he danced one complicated kata after another. The other man had no idea Luffy was there, so when Chopper came around the corner to have a quiet word, the captain listened closely, because their conversation also involved him. 

“It’s really important that you know what you’re doing.” Chopper squeaked as he settled himself down on the stairs. 

Zoro was already flushed from weight lifting, though he had to admit, if he was going to talk about this stuff with anybody on board… Chopper, as a doctor, as another species entirely… he sighed. “What did Luffy say, when I left at breakfast?” he asked the Zoan desperately, sliding down the wall to sit on the deck. 

Chopper clicked his hooves together thoughtfully. “Vivi asked him if he ever had a girlfriend or boyfriend, and he said he never did. Then she asked if he knew about sex, and he said he didn’t. He said you didn’t really want to explain it to him, so he asked Vivi to explain.” 

Zoro swallowed. “Oh.” 

“She didn’t.” the Zoan said, looking at him. “She said it’s something private, and that she couldn’t speak for you.” 

“She did?” the swordsman wasn’t sure if he was happy about that or not, but he smiled anyway, marveling at the blue haired woman’s continued displays of delicacy and respectful discretion.

“Luffy was a little disappointed; he seems really curious about it. I was surprised though, when he didn’t mention what you two did do.” Chopper was digging around in his medical bag. “I could smell it on you, both of you – when I came in.” 

Zoro flushed, “Er.” He stammered before plunging on. “Yea, we did that… but we didn’t talk about it.” 

“I didn’t think so.” Chopper smiled. He produced a small jar from his bag and held it out to the swordsman. “Here.” He said. “If you two decide to, you know, go further… I don’t want you hurting each other.” 

“What’s this?” Zoro asks, unscrewing the lid. He gave the strange clear substance inside a sniff. It didn’t smell like much of anything, maybe a little like distilled water. He stuck in the tip of one finger, and the gloppy stuff stuck to him, and when he rubbed it between two fingers it was slick. 

“Lubricant.” Chopper explained. “Sex between two male humans can be painful because you won’t produce the proper fluids during penetration.” The strait forward explanation from the ship’s doctor shocked Zoro a little, but he nodded, listening hard, because he really had no idea. “So you have to use something to replace those missing fluids. Oil, lubricant, anything slick as long as it’s organic – Don’t use soap!” he warned. “It might cause other problems that – believe me – you don’t want me to have to treat.

Zoro’s ankles throbbed as the subject of treatment, and he nodded. “Thanks, Chopper.” 

“Th—th—Being thanked by a human doesn’t make me happy at all! Ba-BAKA!”

The Swordsman chuckled to himself, Chopper’s wide smile and little happy-dance already a familiar sight. He really was fitting in well on their ship, the little Zoan. He put the jar into his pant’s pocket, letting out another deep breath as he looked across the sea.

The reindeer watched Zoro carefully. “Why didn’t you tell Luffy about sex, since you’re… well… since you’re both obviously okay with it.” 

The green haired man scratched his head. “I donno. I guess…” he gritted his teeth. “He’s never done anything – he’d never even touched himself. How does that even happen?” 

From the shadow of the mikan trees Luffy’s crouched low, hand over his mouth and nose to muffle any sound of his breathing as he peered down at Chopper and Zoro trying to catch every word. 

“…and suddenly rubbing up against each other and - and he gets this look on his face…” Zoro’s voice catches, “What if I hurt him? Or, or something… what if I change him?”

Chopper nods slowly. He jumps down from the steps, and Luffy sees the little Zoan put a hoof on Zoro’s shoulder. “What if he changes you?” he asks. Zoro looks up. The captain can’t see his expression, or Chopper’s, but the doctor walks away at that moment, leaving Zoro to think about that. 

…and without realizing it, leaving Luffy to think about it… What if he changes his swordsman? 

**

As the sun set over the horizon to the west, the ocean stretched out endlessly in every direction. The sky turned pink, and then purple, then slowly – slowly to that deep black-blue where little stars start to appear from. Nami, Vivi, and Usopp had been busy all day erecting a large table and seats, stacking barrels and painting, and stringing lamps and flags, and Sanji cooked up all eighty pounds of dinosaur meat. Heaping bowls of rice and noodles and stirs of vegetables and bottles of sauce all set out and ready on the table beside stacks and stacks of plates and bowls and cups full of silverware and chopsticks. 

“Oi! Mina!!” Vivi and Nami call from the bow at once pressed back to back. 

“Ohhhooo!!!” Luffy rockets down from Nami’s mikan grove, Zoro, Chopper, Carue making their way to the main deck. Taking seats around the table together, everyone begins to tuck in to the delicious food in front of them when Usopp stand from his chair. 

“And because this is an especially special occasion, to celebrate how far we’ve come, and all the Grand Line still left to go!” Self-proclaimed Captain Usopp dips back behind to where the ship’s cannon has been propped up against the storeroom wall. A practiced flick, and the air came alive. 

An array of gold and red and blue lights, beautiful fireworks, that whizz up into the air that crackle and snap and sizzle. The crew ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ at the display that alights the night above the sails of the Going Merry like a dream come true from some distant fairy tale once told across all the Six Seas. Usopp returns to the table amidst applause and laughter, tucking into meat and beer the Sniper proclaims their coming victory on the Island of Sand, and good fortune – to which Nami makes a cry of passion and raises her glass. 

Luffy sits beside his swordsman and laughs, cheeks full to bursting with dinosaur meat cooked to tender perfection. He leans forward and takes a mug from the center of the table, looking around at the choices available to fill it. His eyes fall on the beer keg, the wine, the bottles of sake, teas, fruit juices and coconut milk. Zoro watches his captain as if he’s in slight dilemma. 

“What’s wrong, Sencho?” he laughs, reaching for the pitcher of coconut milk. Across the table Nami is giggling hysterically, Sanji swooning over her and Vivi’s beauty, Chopper and Usopp beating fists of mirth on the table as Carue slurps beer. “You know you always have milk.” 

“Ah.” Luffy’s fingers close around Zoro’s wrist, and the swordsman’s heart skips, because the touch is strong, so very deliberate. “ ‘ think it’s time for a change.” His captain purrs, and because they are so close together Zoro can feel the heat coming off the young pirate and it radiates into him. Luffy stands up with his mug, over to the beer barrel where Usopp has been filling and refilling his tankard for the last half hour. He turned the tap, tipping the mug until pale foam started to drip down over his fingers. Luffy smiles, putting back his arm he swallows down the entire measure before smacking his lips and declaring it delicious. 

With Usopp rushing over to release set after set of brightly colored firecrackers into the air over the ship every half hour or so, each time refilling his mug and staggering on increasingly wobbly legs, the Strawhats laugh – and sing – and drink – and eat – and cheer – and cling to one another, as only they can. And when the night is old, and dawn is coming, they do not hoist the anchor to move forward, opting instead to lie together on the deck, just for a little while, resting and sobering as the warm air pushes across Merry’s decks.


	9. Ready

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy works himself up to confront his swordsman, and the result could not have been more powerful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great mind of Eiichiro Oda***

Two days after their memorable deck party, the Strawhats are lounging about, enjoying the temperate summer island atmosphere. Except poor Chopper; the reindeer has been melting onto the deck since the weather stabilized, his thick fur designed for the frigid cold of the winter island where he was born. Usopp tried to cool him off, but as the bucket of sea water fell over his head the fatigue that followed because of his devil’s fruit was almost worse than being hot. He’s accepted that he just isn’t cut out for summer climates. 

Sanji decided early on in this latest expected voyage between Drum Island and Alabasta that he would use the last three to four days scouring his kitchen. Not wanting to return to moldy counter tops or bugs or shitty mice when they finish whatever they’re going to be doing on the Island. From the way Vivi has expressed interest in showing her appreciation with feasts and relaxation in the palace where she grew up, he feels certain that they won’t be onboard the Merry again for at least a week after they make landfall. 

“Nami-swan, Vivi-chwan, chilled green papaya in cream snack, my mellorines!” 

Nami tastes the rich sorbet and thanks the cook, who noodles away across the deck. She and Vivi are sunbathing near the bow. The navigator has noticed the peculiar absence lately of a certain crewmember who had been known to frequent that particular area of the ship, and she’s sure that Vivi has noticed it too. The two women grin mischievously as Usopp heads into the storeroom to get some spare parts for the device he’s been working on so diligently for the last two weeks. Nami and Vivi share a kiss before sitting back in their sun chairs with the sun glittering across their skin. They cannot yet see the island of Alabasta in the distance, but the Sea-cats swimming alongside their ship, golden bellies and as massive as Sea Kings, leave no doubt in the princess’ mind. They are drawing ever closer to their destination. 

Luffy, as Nami guessed, has abandoned his special seat up on Merry’s figurehead, temporarily. He’s gotten rather fond of watching Zoro since he realized that he could do so from under Nami’s mikan trees. Of course, this action is meaningless if he’s found out, so he’s taken great care to make sure no one sees him as he squeezes himself into the gap between the two tiny rows of trees to sprawl in the cool shade. The swordsman has been constantly training in his usual spot at the stern of the ship, and today is no exception. Luffy props his head on his hands, glancing down. The stairs Sanji uses to water the trees are on the stern side, so he doesn’t have to worry about anyone sneaking up on him and giving him away, so he can watch his swordsman to his heart’s content. 

Zoro’s been almost completely unaffected by the warmer climate that’s descended over the sea, the only difference is that he’s drinking more water and marginally less sake. And he’s shirtless, hamaraki also cast next to the stairs. A sight with the captain finds surprisingly pleasant somewhere deep in his belly. Luffy croons quietly to himself as Zoro’s hands spin and turn Wado in long sweeping motions, his back and shoulders in compliment to the deep stance between his steps. The muscles in his swordsman’s back ripple under his practiced movements, and the dark haired pirate wonders if he were to touch them just right, if they would ripple like that the same way. 

“Oi, Zoro.” Sanji appears next to the stairs with a plate of onigiri and another bottle of water. Zoro nods as the cook leaves it by the steps, taking away the other bottle that is near empty. He hasn’t finished his kata, though, and returns to the form before he was interrupted. After he’s finished, feet coming together with a long exhale, he turns. Luffy ducks down into the shade. For a minute he thinks that Zoro’s seen him, but instead he makes for the steps, tucking into the food and drink that’s been left for him. Luffy peeks over the edge of the landing. Normally when there’s food in sight he’s suddenly hungry, no matter what, but he’s not hungry now. He’s just… captivated. 

“Oi.” Zoro growls, and Luffy’s again sure that he’s been found out, but he waits, and when he listens, he realizes that Zoro isn’t talking to him. “You think you can do better?” he’s saying, staring at the wall where his other two katana are leaning. The swordsman takes a long drink, then gets up to place Wado against the wall, his fingers tightening around Kitetsu. “Don’t give me a hard time, eh? Play nice.” He says to the katana, laying the flat dark edge of the cursed sword against his arm and peering at the steel, peering behind him. Luffy feels really exposed all the sudden, but the swordsman doesn’t alter. He steps back into position, lifting the blade into the air, and begins to move in a way his captain hasn’t yet seen. It’s quicker, the stance deeper, knees apart and the ankles forming a stronger, or rather a more anchored position. His blade hums through the air, and with each passing moment that Luffy watches, the pace increases… until…

“Ahn!” Zoro yelps, a spray of blood falling onto the deck. The captain’s eyes twitch. “Dammit, you.” Zoro licks the small cut that has appeared on his forearm. Abandoning the strange kata he sheaths the cursed blade. Luffy turns and lowers himself down from under the mikan trees. 

“Zoro.” He says. 

The swordsman faces his captain, eying the spot where Luffy’s standing, and then the gap beside the stairs, which is the only way to arrive from. He didn’t see him come that way. “Sencho.” He says, leaning Kitetsu up against the wall. 

“Zoro’s bleeding?”

“Aye.” The swordsman chuckles. “My own fault, don’t worry about it.” 

“Told Zoro already.” Luffy smiles, “Have to worry.” The captain’s fidgeting, and Zoro’s aware of that odd feeling that he knows his captain wants something – but he’s not sure what it is and he doesn’t want to guess, because he doesn’t want to get it wrong – but he can’t just stand there either. “Want Zoro.” Luffy mutters, quietly, not looking at the older man. “We’re gonna land in a couple of days – gonna fight.” He looks up. “I wanna have Zoro before that.” 

‘Have me?’ Zoro thinks to himself, grinning. ‘What am I, a steak?’

Luffy’s lips stretch, ‘I know Zoro isn’t food.’ He thinks back, and he knows Zoro can hear him. 

‘What is this, Scencho?’ The swordsman takes a step closer to his captain, his lips not moving. 

‘Donno,’ Luffy reaches forward, Zoro’s green eyes in him. 

‘This is really what you want?’ Zoro asks through his eyes.

Luffy’s laceing his fingers with his swordsman’s. ‘Yea, I want Zoro.’ 

It’s a pretty stupid thing to do, Zoro admits as he and Luffy retreat from the stern, cross the landing down to the main deck, and kick open the hatch leading into the men’s quarters. Everybody watches them go. And dammit if Nami isn’t staring! Luffy didn’t let go of the swordsman’s hand until he reached the mast ladder. Zoro cast a look towards the women before he follows his captain, pulling down the hatch as they disappear inside. 

Luffy’s not nervous this time, and when they gain the sofa they’re pulling off each other’s clothes with slow, deliberate action. Zoro takes his time peeling away Luffy’s vest, undoing each button carefully before slipping his hand between the parted fabric. Luffy’s heartbeat strong under his palm, beating against his ribcage. They kiss, and there is less desperation this time, more quiet meaning, a gradualness that they did not seem to have before. 

“Zoro?” Luffy gasps. 

“Aye?” 

“Zoro knows what to do. What ‘sex’ is?” 

The swordsman pushes back his captain’s red vest, exposing the younger mans’ shoulders. “Yea. I know.” He says, the tips of his fingers tracing the line of Luffy’s neck and cheek and over the raised scar under his captain’s eye. 

“I don’t know.” Luffy says, seriously, reaching up to remove his straw hat and place it on the hammock behind them. “So Zoro’s gatta teach me.” He can’t get the words out of his head, the words he heard his swordsman say to Chopper. ‘What if I hurt him… what if I change him…’ Luffy touches the trail of Zoro’s largest wound, that diagonal chest scar. Leaning forward he places a kiss over the older man’s heart, and he felt the beating of the muscle underneath. “I came to the Grand Line because I knew I was gonna change.” 

Zoro gasped as Luffy reached down to wrap his fingers gently around him, blood rushing in so that he swelled under his captain’s touch. “Sencho.” He breathed. 

“Zoro’s body…” Luffy stammered. “I – I like watching him.”

“I know.” His swordsman gasps. “You’ve been up… in those… ahn… damn trees for… two days now.” So Zoro knew… but Luffy didn’t care if Zoro knew or didn’t know. It didn’t matter at all. He gently stroked along the other man, the veins that stood out across his shaft, then crossways over his thigh to his back. His fingers dipping in and out of the peaks and valleys of muscle tissue that he’s observed and fantasized about touching and feeling... Now he can. Now he can’t stop.

“Teach me?” Luffy whispered, his breath warm against his swordsman’s… his lover’s skin.

Zoro keened, both his captain’s strong hands returning to his swollen need, fingers pressings lightly, so very lightly along the tender underside that he generally doesn’t touch himself. They kiss, rocking slightly as Merry dips on the swells of the sea. The swordsman guides Luffy back until they’re supported by the sofa. Luffy releases his hold, grappling instead with the strong arms as Zoro’s teeth worry the skin on his neck and shoulder. 

“What have you been thinking about, Sencho?” Zoro asks his captain, tipping them until Luffy is pressed down against the cushions under him. Pressing strong hands along his abdomen. “Up there, when you were watching me?” 

Luffy’s breathing hikes, and he laughs. “Zoro.” He says simply. “His body, and his…” the young captain reaches forward to touch the developed muscle on his swordsman’s stomach. Touching so hungrily that he can almost hear Luffy’s want, and then he can see it. 

“You catch on fast.” The older pirate grins, one hand coming down to pet his captain’s engorged shaft. Luffy’s back arches, eyes slipping back as his mouth opens in a silent demand for more. He doesn’t fully wrap his hand around his captain, because just the simple and slight contact of running the backs of his fingers along stretched skin produces violent shudders and stammered sounds to escape Luffy’s lips. Zoro using his other hand to splay fingers over the younger pirate’s stomach, holding him down as well as gauging his breathing; he needs to make sure his captain is alright. 

“Z- ahn!” Luffy’s watching the look of half amusement, half assurance that stretches his swordsman’s face. The older pirate making absolutely certain that nothing he’s doing is actually causing pain. His hands retreat and Luffy breathes heavily, leaning back onto the cushions as the older man leans over to his own hammock behind them. When he kneels back down next to his captain he’s holding the jar Luffy saw him get from Chopper. 

The swordsman’s turning the jar over and over in his fingers. “You’re really ready?” he asks. “Even if it’s weird?” 

Luffy nods, eyeing the jar, but still gasping, still flushed and hard and needing to touch the man beside him. Zoro allows another kiss, pulling the younger man into his lap with his own back to the sofa as he takes his time to run calloused hands over Luffy’s back and shoulders, taking note of knitted muscle and heat building across the younger man’s skin. He brings both hands down to spread his captain’s rear, and Luffy gasps, eyes locking down with his swordsman’s. Zoro slows, continuing to fondle sensitive flesh, and Luffy’s sex rubs between their bellies. Reaching aside the older man unscrews the jar, leaving it open on the table beside them, two fingers gathering the clear gel, and he rakes the fingers of his other hand down Luffy’s spine. His captain keens, eyes closing, and he takes the opportunity to smear the clear lubricant over and down his backside, between him, and then to slowly rub back, worrying gently at his entrance so that his eyes fly wide. 

“Zoro?” he croons. He’s clutching to the thick muscle on Zoro’s shoulder blades, the older pirate drinking in his every slight reaction. 

“It’s a lesson.” He tells Luffy, the pads of his fingers tracing circles on the taught ring of muscle as Luffy shudders in his arms. “You said you wanted me, right?” he leans forward to lick across one stiff pink nipple on his captain’s chest. 

Luffy’s teeth clacked together, and he nods. “Y-y-yea.” 

“I’m gonna be inside you.” Zoro tells the younger pirate, and his voice is a low growl, because he’s hungry now too, hungry and ready and so – so willing. 

Luffy’s back arches and a deep desperate sound tumbles out of his throat as his swordsman makes entry. One finger slowly, slowly worrying its way into his body. He watches his captain, listening to his every breath and sound and observing the color rising on his neck, the beads of sweat developing across his chest. A second finger joins the first, and he was beginning to open up the younger man. It was a sensation the young captain couldn’t at first figure out, it didn’t hurt, per-say, but it was a little less than pleasant. His eyebrows suddenly came together and he made a sound of discomfort that stopped Zoro’s progress. 

“Too much?” the swordsman asks, and he brought his lips down against Luffy’s collar bone with gentle kisses. His captain either wouldn’t or couldn’t answer, and after a few moments he began again, though this time plunging deeper, because he remembered vividly one story around the camp fire with Yosaku while Johnny was sleeping off too much beer; a story about a certain spot that caused the body to burn, and was the decided goal for any male to male relation. Reaching until his palm rested against his captain’s skin, he worked his fingers slowly, methodically searching for a mass rumored to be slightly more firm than the tissue surrounding it, and watching his captain closely. 

Luffy’s eyes were tightly closed, his breath gasping from hot lungs. His fingers tight around Zoro’s shoulders, gripping and releasing because he could not decide if what he was feeling counted as pain, or if he was just overreacting to something that really was pleasure – he really couldn’t tell. And his stomach burned, his sex pulsing and hurting so much that he wished he knew how to make it stop – or more than that, he wanted Zoro to make it stop, but he didn’t know how to say that either. He was just on the point to asking his swordsman to stop what he was doing when his eyes flew wide. He felt tears gathering, and his toes curled. His stomach was absolutely on fire – a thousand times hotter than a moment before – His fingers went ridged as they dug into Zoro’s strong shoulders hard enough to break skin. Zoro grinned, watching Luffy, and didn’t even mind when steady trickles of his own blood rolled down his back. 

“There it is…” he breathed, lying one cheek against Luffy’s chest to listen to the younger man’s heart beat out of control. He rolled his fingers a little, and his captain cried out. No a loud or painful noise, but a long note, a keen that had his name inside it. He liked that sound, and privately vowed to himself that he would make sure he heard it again, said just like that. He would make his captain say it over and over again. But for today… He withdrew from Luffy’s body, and in the absence of that pressure Luffy relaxed, falling against Zoro and breathing in prodigious breaths. 

Zoro gave Luffy a moment, his hands resting on the small of his back to feel where his pulse raced, pushing blood into the lower half of his body. When he had calmed down enough for the swordsman they kissed, and Luffy brought his hands to Zoro’s cheeks, noticing there was blood under his nails. 

“Z-Zoro–” 

“Don’t worry about it.” His first mate crooned, seeing the hurt in his captain’s eyes at the sight blood he had not intended to spill. 

Luffy allowed himself to be turned so that his chest rested against the back of the sofa, his knees spread apart on the cushions and his hips jutted back. Zoro stood behind him, and he looked back to see the older pirate spread a measure of the gel over himself, and both hands coming forward to grasp his hips. The swordsman pressed himself against Luffy, his sex rubbing in between his legs so that he felt the heat of him against the underside of himself, and he gasped. 

“Ready?” Zoro asked, hands passing up and down his captain’s flanks and across his back. “Are you ready for me to be inside you, Sencho?” 

Luffy relaxed his neck, resting his head down on the back of the sofa as he listened to his first mate’s voice, thick and heavy and so masculine. He shivered to hear it, and Oh god he wanted him… wanted him so very badly. “Need Zoro.” He breathed, and he hoped that his swordsman would understand. 

Zoro did. He had been watching and listening, feeling and tasting his captain; drinking in every bit of him, and now that he heard such raw words… he could no longer hold himself back. His shoulders burned as he adjusted Luffy’s hips carefully, and pressed himself into him, slowly – yes, but with all his strength and desperate need for him. The younger man keened and gasped as the massive form of his lover entered into him and stretched him, stretched the rubber man with such slick and warm power. Once buried as deeply as he could go Zoro gave a shuddering gasp, lying against his captain’s back and making his own desperate and strangled sounds that could not be kept inside. Luffy shivered to hear him, and when they began to move, gradually rocking against one another because it kept their bodies pressed so wonderfully close, Zoro wrapped his arms around his captain’s chest and stomach and one hand took hold of his engorged member. He stroked, lightly tugging and warring with his fingers. Luffy keened and called his swordsman’s name. Other words escaping his lips with increasing inconsistent incoherency until he suddenly shook from head to foot. His body became a ball of fire emanating from just behind his navel and fed by every slight place where he had contact with his lover, and he looked down to see something spill from inside him all over Zoro’s encircling fingers. He couldn’t think, but he knew he couldn’t stop moving yet, because the man behind him had just begun to grind and buck with more urgency, and his voice… Oh, his voice… Calling his name with barely audible pleas to stay with him. It didn’t take long, and he was shuddering and shivering, teeth on Luffy’s shoulder as he hissed at the air and Luffy felt himself filling up with still more heat. Zoro releasing inside, his heat, and his captain let himself close his eyes, focused only on that sensation of his swordsman inside of him.


	10. Bright and Unbreakable Promise of Adventure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He isn't one for the short term, is he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great mind of Eiichiro Oda***

Blood trickled down Zoro’s back, stinging as it mixed with his sweat. He wasn’t able to speak yet, because he needed to breathe. Gradually both pirates were able to lower themselves down so that they could lay together, Luffy cradled between Zoro’s chest and the back of the sofa. Zoro petted his captain’s side, vaguely wondering why the action felt so soothing to him, and listening to the other man’s breath as it began to steady and slow. 

“Are you alright, Sencho?” he asked, nuzzling into his younger man's black hair. 

The captain grinned. “Yea! Zoro’s the best teacher!” 

“You–” The swordsman wrapped his arms around his young captain, and they pushed their spent bodies together for a moment. 

“Need to get Chopper.” Luffy said suddenly, pushing himself up and out of his lover’s arms. 

“Eh? Oh… yea.” Zoro reached back, and when his fingers came away there was blood on them. He smiled, knowing why. Luffy was already dressed, slipping on his sandals, and the swordsman hurried to get his clothes on and follow his captain up the mast ladder. 

Once up on deck Zoro could tell that everyone on board had heard his and Luffy’s – exuberant – first time together. Vivi was unnaturally quiet, deliberately keeping her back on him while Nami had her face behind her newspaper, but he was certain she was blushed red. At least the girls didn’t feel the need to bombard them with questions. Chopper was marginally less-than-thrilled to learn that, while they had not suffered any kind of friction-based skin burns, Zoro had managed ten fairly deep lacerations, some of them a full six centimeters in length and requiring stiches. Luffy hung his head as the reindeer scolded him, because it was obviously his fault. 

“It’s not that bad!” Zoro tried to say over Chopper’s rant, because his captain was looking so very disturbed by the injuries he had caused. Luffy remained with him while his cuts were cleaned and sutured, and when Chopper left them alone in the dining room he cuddled up under his swordsman’s arm. 

“I’m sorry.” He breathed. “Sorry I hurt Zoro.” 

“Shut up.” The green haired pirate tousled his captain’s hair. “Told you, it’s not that bad.” Part of him wanted Luffy to know that he had actually kind of liked it, but he wasn’t sure that information would be heard in quite the way he wanted it meant, at least not right at that moment in time. His captain had been looking so goddam thoughtful since Chopper had started laying into him. “So, was it what you expected?” he asked. 

Luffy nuzzled against Zoro’s side, arms around his waist. “Donno.” He said. 

Zoro put a hand on Luffy’s back, feeling the air moving in and out of his lungs, remembering how just a little while ago he had been so wildly breathless. “Are you disappointed?” The arms around him gripped tighter. 

“Is Zoro?” 

“I asked first.” 

Luffy was quiet for a moment, and both pirates listening to the creaking of their ship and the quiet that was so unusual to have between them. “Is Zoro mine?” he asked. 

The swordsman looked down on his captain’s black hair. “Do you want me to be?” 

“Need Zoro.” Luffy said, and it was such a quiet pair of words that said so much, and it tore at Zoro’s chest. 

“Lu–”

“Right away Nami-swan!” 

The cabin door squealed open and Sanji came bounding in with a smile plastered all over his freaking face. Zoro wanted to cut him. Really wanted to just tear through him with all three katana until–

“Oi! You two were away a while.” The cook leered, flamboyantly unconcerned with the murderous look on his green haired nakama’s face as he leaned over the table to observe the freshly sutured claw marks on his back. “They look pretty damn deep, you should cut your fingernails, Sencho.” 

Luffy didn’t laugh, he just quietly unwound his arms and stood up, crossing the cabin he opened the door for the deck, and when it closed with a slow snap Zoro’s guts went cold. 

“Is he alright?” Sanji asked, rolling up his sleeves to prepare the day’s afternoon snack. 

Zoro rubbed his hands into his face. “We were talking, you fucking bastard!” he choked. 

“Oh? What about?” 

“The hell do you think it was about?” Zoro winced as the stiches in his shoulders stretched and he struggled to get his shirt back on. He had one hand grasped around the door handle when the cook spoke. 

“He isn’t one for the short-term, is he?” 

Zoro didn’t look at the blond man, just stared at the point where his fingers hovered over the brass handle because he had pulled his hand away. A faint ringing in his ears. 

**

Luffy stood just the other side of the door when he left the cabin. His skin still hot, and there were all kinds of hazy sensations in places he had never had those kinds of sensations before. He gulped back a hot breath as a chill ran up and down his spine, and he suddenly wanted to not be alone in the open air. He wanted to be… he really wasn’t sure… wanted something… to be warm? No. Not that… to be… held? He shook his head, noticing that he’d left his straw hat down below in the men’s quarters. But that was okay, he’d get it later, right now he had to… 

“Oi, Luffy?” Usopp came around from the stern, having been harvesting mikan. He had a basket of them in his hands. The sniper grinned, “How ya feeling?” he chided, poking his captain in the side. The raven haired boy allowed himself a rather guilty looking grin while his nakama set down the basket of fruit and looked him up and down. “ ‘s the matter?” the long nosed man asked. 

Luffy’s smile slipped a little, but he hitched it right back on his face in a heartbeat, laughter spilling out from between his lips. But the captain was a terrible liar, and Usopp knew a good lie from a bad one even through the best of bluffers. Hell, he was one. 

“Luffy?” 

“Gonna take a nap!” the captain told his sniper, clapping the man on his shoulder. Another laugh, and it wasn’t right. He ran off for the men’s quarters. Usopp picked up the basket again and passed inside the cabin. 

Once down the mast ladder Luffy leaned against the smooth timber and gasped. The air was thick down there, with his and Zoro’s scent, mixed with all the other normal smells of the room – wood polish, oiled rope, dirty and clean laundry, gunpowder, and the ever present saltiness of the sea – He pulled himself into his hammock, clutching a blanket around him before closing his eyes to enjoy how his body was slowly, slowly coming down from being brought so high; only ever so slightly disturbed and so incredibly sad that he was doing it alone. 

**

Usopp pushed his way into the dining room to see their swordsman slumped on his arms at the table, Sanji chopping and slicing and working at his cutting board. He deposited the basket on the counter beside the cook. “Nami say’s well make landfall day after tomorrow.” He told Sanji, leaning against the wall and shaking his head in Zoro’s direction. “Honestly. What is wrong now?” he asked his green haired nakama. “From the way you two were…” he stumbled to find a word to use, but couldn’t really decide on one. “… Didn’t it go well?” he asked in exasperation. 

“Don’t worry about it, Usopp.” Sanji plucked a mikan from the basket, and with a flick and a few swipes of his sharp knife the fruit gently tumbled across his cutting board in perfectly equal pieces. 

Zoro let out a strangled groan, throwing himself up from the table and out the door. 

“Luffy seems pretty distracted.” The sniper tells Sanji, taking one of the cut mikan wedges. 

“Well, first time and all.” Sanji said, continuing to slice and chop and add ingredients in a wide metal bowl at his elbow. “They’ve got one more day to get their shit straight.” 

**

With Luffy and Zoro’s quite obvious tension, not to mention the sheer volume of their activities, Nami and Vivi’s more quite touching and whispers went rather unnoticed. They had been twining hands and fingers together when Zoro suddenly came out from the cabin to follow after their captain to the men’s quarters. He didn’t even glance in their direction before disappearing down the mast ladder. 

“Mr. Bushido seems worried.” Vivi observed, a small gasp following because the navigator’s hand circled around her wrist as they grasped at each other. 

“He’s fine.” The redhead insisted, pushing back the woman’s hair with her free hand. The two women leaned in to share a careful kiss, tongues wandering over and in between each other’s swollen lips, hands searching… “We’ll reach Alabasta soon.” 

Vivi nodded, nuzzling against her lover’s cheek. 

“We’re going to get you home.” 

Another nod, and this time Nami saw tears in the princess’ eyes. 

“Don’t cry.” She cooed. “Don’t cry.” 

The kiss that followed pulled their bodies together, arms and leg twining and the women held to each other, an unmoving connection where they counted each heartbeat through the other’s skin, clinging to the warmth that assured them the other was close. A closeness they both knew would be lost to them, all too soon. 

**

Zoro wrapped his arms around his captain as he lay in his hammock, and Luffy reached out for his swordsman, the other man’s warmth and smell suddenly so powerful around him. He realized then – that’s what he wanted. That was what he so badly needed, and he couldn’t bring himself to let go. Sensing this, the desperate pressure on his back and the racing heartbeat pressed up against his cheek, Zoro lifted his captain and settled onto the sofa. With a few silent promptings and motions they were soon lying own, legs wrapped up, the younger pirate tucked in close under his chin. 

He was finding that talking was hard, maddeningly difficult, because Luffy seemed to be so close to the verge of tears – and he wanted no part in making his own captain cry. Well, not that way, anyway. 

“Zoro’s warm.” Luffy said, and Zoro was relieved at the broken silence. 

“Yea?” he asked. “Well, so are you.” 

Luffy giggled, wriggling closer into the swordsman’s chest. “What was Zoro gonna say?” he asked, soft and quiet again. It still hurt to hear him so quiet. The older pirate ran his fingers through the dark locks under his nose, then further into the dips and raises of his lover's spine before tracing across slim yet muscular shoulders. 

“Would it change anything?” the swordsman asks. “Being yours?” Fingers clutched at his hips twitched, and he sighed. “Your dream, Sencho – to be the Pirate King, and mine is to be The Greatest Swordsman in the World. Does it matter if we belong to each other?” 

“So… I’d be Zoro’s?” Luffy asked. The older pirate chuckled, and the sound from his chest made his captain smile again, and it was genuine.

The next day the Strawhats made landfall on the scorching sands of Alabasta. With battle and the elements, old and new enemies, long lost brothers, magic mushrooms, and the (what quickly became, various) dangers of the desert to occupy them, the captain and first mate did not concern themselves with such trivialities that defined ownership over each other. Nami and Vivi clung onto every precious moment they were allowed to have together, moving ever forward. It was unclear that they would achieve their goal, or even (as they soon learned) how to define that goal. But the days moved, and with every breath, they accepted the many changes that came, because to hold still was perhaps the only danger in their world. To hold still, and never move forward… That would surely end them. So they ran towards the rising sun, following the man in the red vest and a straw hat on his head – his smile to guide them through even the darkest of storms on land or sea. They followed him into a new day – voice ringing with bright and unbreakable promises for adventure.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always welcome! I hope this story was enjoyed!


End file.
